it doesn't make
any real difference.

OLIVIA (surprised). No difference?

GEORGE. Well, that is to say, you're as much his wife if he's in
Australia as you are if he's in England.

OLIVIA. I am not his wife at all.

GEORGE. But, Olivia, surely you understand the position----

OLIVIA (shaking her head). Jacob Telworthy may be alive, but I am not
his wife. I ceased to be his wife when I became yours.

GEORGE. You never _were_ my wife. That is the terrible part of it. Our
union--you make me say it, Olivia--has been unhallowed by the Church.
Unhallowed even by the Law. Legally, we have been living in--living
in--well, the point is, how does the Law stand? I imagine that
Telworthy could get a--a divorce. . . . Oh, it seems impossible that
things like this can be happening to _us_.

OLIVIA (Joyfully). A divorce?

GEORGE. I--I imagine so.

OLIVIA. But then we could _really_ get married, and we shouldn't be
living in--living in--whatever we were living in before.

GEORGE. I can't understand you, Olivia. You talk about it so calmly,
as if there was nothing blameworthy in being divorced, as if there was
nothing unusual in my marrying a divorced woman, as if there was
nothing wrong in our having lived together for years without having
been married.

OLIVIA. What seems wrong to me is that I lived for five years with a
bad man whom I hated. What seems right to me is that I lived for five
years with a good man whom I love.

GEORGE. Yes, yes, my dear, I know. But right and wrong don't settle
themselves as easily as that. We've been living together when you were
Telworthy's wife. That's _wrong_.

OLIVIA. Do you mean wicked?

GEORGE. Well, no doubt the Court would consider that we acted in
perfect innocence--

OLIVIA. What Court?

GEORGE. These things have to be done legally, of course. I believe the
proper method is a nullity suit, declaring our marriage null
and--er--void. It would, so to speak, wipe out these years of--er--

OLIVIA. Wickedness?

GEORGE. Of irregular union, and--er--then--

OLIVIA. Then I could go back to Jacob. . . . Do you really mean that,
George?

GEORGE (uneasily). Well, dear, you see--that's how things are--one
can't get away from--er----

OLIVIA. What you feel is that Telworthy has the greater claim? You are
prepared to--make way for him?

GEORGE. Both the Church and the Law would say that I had no claim at
all, I'm afraid. I--I suppose I haven't.

OLIVIA. I see. (She looks at